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THE 



FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 



-AND- 



THEIR LIMITATIONS. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS INVOLVED 

IN THE MUTUAL RELATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT 

AND THE INDIVIDUAL. 



BY EDWARD JEWETT. 






FITCHBURG, MASS.: 
SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS 

1893. 



ERS. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, by EDWARD 
JEWETT, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 
AND THEIE LIMITATIONS. 



Questions relating to the functions of government are of 
ever-present concern in every civilized community : but in a 
republic where all such questions are decided by the people, 
either by positive action or by default, that they should have 
a full and correct understanding of the reasons for the insti- 
tution of government, what its proper functions are, and 
what are their limitations, is of the most momentous impor- 
tance. Among what are familiarlv called the laboring classes 
in this, and all other English speaking countries, and manv 
of the nations of continental Europe, there exists at the pres- 
ent time a spirit of unrest, dominated by a sense of injustice 
in regard to the relations which they sustain to the opportu- 
nities to provide for their needs, and to improve their condi- 
tions, that is rapidly Hearing the safety limit, and which i> 
filling the mind of every student of society with the gravest, 
concern. There is a very general feeling among them that 
the cause is governmental, and the danger is that in their 
ignorance of the true functions of government, as well as the 
true sources of the injustice and hardship which they feel so 
keenly, they may be led to the adoption of measures that 
will only increase the evils from which they suffer, and that 
are destructive to human liberty and happiness. Under these 
circumstances, does it not behoove every lover of his country 
and of humanity to examine in the most thorough manner 
the fundamental principles of government, with their logical 
application to the various matters that require governmental 
action, and to use his utmost endeavor to disseminate such 
knowledge among all classes of society? In the full convic- 



4 THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

tion that the dangers that threaten the public welfare from 
this quarter are the direct result of the perversion of the 
functions of government, and that in the words of the first 
National Assembly of France, " Ignorance, neglect or con- 
tempt of human rights are the sole" causes of public misfor- 
tunes and corruptions of government,*' this essay is offered as 
a brief presentation of the principles to which all just govern- 
ment must conform, with examples of some of their most 
important applications. 

When the members of the continental congress appealed 
to God to justify the rectitude of their intentions, and to the 
world for sympathy with their cause, they declared that, 
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their creator^ with 
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any 
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute 
new government, laying its foundations on such principles, 
and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." 

This passage from the Declaration of American Independ- 
ence is taken as a text because it is a terse and accurate state- 
ment of the nature and origin of the rights of men, the logi- 
cal origin of the state and the scope of its functions. Ac- 
cording to this declaration the sole function of government is 
the maintenance of the God-given equality of individual 
rights. This great truth has been denied and these declara- 
tions scoffed at as glittering generalities by the defenders of 
oppression: but their self-evident character will be manifest to 
all who will but ask themselves this one question: "If there 
was no danger of any trespass upon individual right, would 
there be any occasion for any government whatever ? ' Nei- 
ther is there any vagueness whatever about them : for not- 
withstanding that they are as broad as the functions of the 
state, they are susceptible of application to the minutest de- 
tails of legislation, furnishing in all cases a decisive test as 
to the duty of the government. 



AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. .") 

Having seen what the impelling motive is in the establish- 
ment of the state, and that the state exists for the individual, 
let us inquire upon what ethical principles his allegiance can 
be demanded. It is frequently said that every right imposes 
an obligation upon its possessor: but this is an erroneous 
statement of the origin of obligation, since all obligation has 
its origin in, and is determined by, the rights of others, and 
not in or by the rights of self. By virtue of their presence 
in the world, each in the absolute possession of his own indi- 
vidual powers, by the equal permission of their Creator, they 
are endowed with an absolute right to the use and enjoyment 
of such powers, limited only by the equal right of others, 
and with an equal right of access to and enjoyment of all 
the provisions of the material universe for the exercise of 
such powers, from which it follows that each is under obliga- 
tion to refrain from all trespass upon the equal rights of 
others, either active by personal volition, or passive by per- 
mitting such trespass by others, which he had power to pre- 
vent. Because all men individually owe this obligation to 
each, and the evil disposed will not refrain from trespass upon 
the rights of others except under compulsion, it is not onlv 
their right, but it is their highest obligation, to organize and 
establish such a government as shall seem best fitted to 
render their combined power effective in the defense of the 
rights of each individual from all trespass, public or private : 
and because each individual owes this obligation to all others, 
he owes his allegiance to such government in the fulfilment 
of such obligation. 

THE STATE. 

To render the power of the whole people effective for the 
security of the rights of each individual, it is necessary to 
establish and define by organic law or constitution the powers 
of the three co-ordinate departments of the government — the 
legislative, the executive, and the judicial — into which its 
functions are naturally divided, together with such limitations 
and declarations of rights as may be necessary for the protec- 
tion of individual right against trespass by the government, 
at the same time that it makes clear the nature and extent 
of its claim to his allegiance. 



Q THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

Let it be observed as the first of all considerations limiting 
the powers and functions of the state, that civil government 
can properly concern itself only with the obligations of indi- 
viduals to each other as related to their external acts, for the 
sufficient reason that beyond this limit it is impossible for 
human knowledge to go; and further, for the most profound 
of all reasons, that any interference with matters of opinion 
and belief is an invasion of the absolute right of each to the 
use of such intellectual and moral perceptions as he has been 
endowed with by his Creator, since the freest use of such fac- 
ulties in no way* interferes with the equal right of any other. 

LEGISLATURE. 

It devolves upon the legislature to provide by law for the 
levying and collection of such just taxes as are necessary to 
the proper performance of all the various functions of the 
government; to make from time to time such laws as may be 
necessary to clearly define the rights and obligations of indi- 
viduals and to provide the mode of redress for any infringe- 
ment on private right: to organize a judiciary without bias, 
with courts that shall be equally accessible to every inhabi- 
tant, for the settlement of disputes and the trial of offenses 
against the public weal; to provide the executive department 
with such military forces and civil service as may be neces- 
sary for the public defense and the execution of the laws ; to 
provide for the punishment of crime ; to establish public con- 
trol of all highways, including railways, postal, telegraph 
and telephone service, water, gas and electric light supply, 
and any similar public service which is in its nature a mo- 
nopoly. 

TENURE OF LAND. 

In political economy the term "land" is applied rot only 
to the surface of the earth, but to all the vast stores of mate- 
rial contained therein, and to the spontaneous products of 
nature. Man being a land animal and unable to subsist ex- 
cept upon land, the tenure of land, or the terms upon which 
he can have access to land, limit his opportunities for the 
exercise of those powers and capacities for the supply of his 



AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. 



own wants and the wants of those dependent upon him. with 
which he has been endowed by his Creator. 

Wherever the spontaneous products of nature afford a suf- 
ficient supply for all the wants of the inhabitants, equality of 
right requires simply that each be allowed to help himself 
freely : but when, through the increase of population, the 
spontaneous products of nature fail to supply their needs, and 
recourse must be had to agriculture and the mechanic arts to 
furnish a sufficient supply, it becomes necessary to perform 
more or less labor which becomes attached to the land in such 
ways that the reward, or product of such labor, can only be 
secured to him who performs it. by permitting him to occupy 
it for a longer or shorter time, according to the character of 
such labor. So long as the demand for land for permanent 
occupation is fully supplied by equally desirable land, no 
special advantage will accrue to the occupant as the result of 
such occupation: but as population increases, towns spring- 
up and the arts develop, the desirability for occupation of 
land in different locations will vary greatly, as will be seen 
in the different rent that it will command, aside from that of 
any product of labor that is fixed upon it: and the occupa- 
tion or control of the more desirable land gives the occupant 
an unjust advantage over those who must occupy land less 
desirable. Since all men have at all times an equal natural 
right to their choice in the location of the land that thev shall 
occupy, and each has an absolute natural right to the prod- 
uct of his labor that has become attached to the land he occu- 
pies, equity requires on the one hand that each occupant shall 
be permitted to remain in occupation of such land, and on 
the other hand that he shall be required from time to time to 
pay into the public treasury the full current rental value of 
such land, excluding the value of the products of labor there- 
on. This is the most important of all the functions of gov- 
ernment, for upon the access to land depends the maintenance 
of life itself, upon which the exercise of all other rights 
depends: hence the denial of, or the failure to maintain 
equality of right in the occupation or control of land, makes 
any real and genuine liberty and equality in the exercise of 
other rights impossible. 



8 THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

It is not necessary to the fullest performance of this func- 
tion by the state that it should formally take possession of 
the land, or in the least disturb the present titles of occupa- 
tion, with the power to sell or bequeath the same, but it need 
only enforce its right to take annually by taxation the full 
rental value of the land, exclusive of improvements, just as 
it has in time past taken a part of such rent. Such a sys- 
tem is eminently practical, since land lies out of doors and 
cannot be hid, and all the circumstances and conditions that 
affect its value are open to the inspection of all men. The 
chief objections to the adoption of this system are based on 
a misapprehension of the character of the present titles to 
land. For a clear understanding of this matter, it is not 
necessary to enter into the history of such titles, but only to 
conside/the following facts : The right of the present genera- 
tion to occupy and use the earth is not derived in fact from 
former generations, who only held a life lease of it, but di- 
rectly from their Creator ; and so far from their being bound 
to maintain any system of land tenure that violates the 
equality of individual right, they are bound to make what- 
ever change is necessary to secure such equality. But it is 
said that even if all have an equal right to land, to destroy 
the capital or selling value by compelling the present » owner," 
who may have paid for it in the products of his labor, to pay- 
full rent for occupancy would be confiscation ; but this propo- 
sition is based on the mistaken assumption that he would be 
robbed of what was his by right when the government 
restored to others their equal right, whereas, any money that 
he may have paid for such ownership was simply a specula- 
tion in the probability of the government perpetuating the 
injustice of the present system. So far from the present 
owners being entitled to compensation from the government 
for such change, they are in the last analysis simply in 

arrears in rent. 

This source of revenue being one in which all have an 
equal natural right, any part of it that may be necessary 
may be justly spent for, and only for, the equal benefit of all; 
and should any excess of revenue arise from this source above 
what can be wisely spent in such ways as will be of equal 
benefit to all, any such excess should be divided equally per 



AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. 9 

capita. Such a dividend would be one of the most powerful 
instrumentalities for awakening the people at large to that 
watchful personal interest in the conduct of the government 
which is so necessary to the preservation of liberty. As land 
values are the only ones in which the rights of all are equal 
and common, and the only ones that are not susceptible of 
concealment, they are for these reasons the only ones upon 
which an equitable levy can possibly be laid ; equity would 
therefore seem to require that the expenditures of the gov- 
ernment should be limited to the revenue derived from this 
source. 

HIGHWAYS. 

So long as, from any cause, men are isolated from each 
other, the supply of their wants must be very limited, since 
such supply depends upon their own unaided efforts: but as 
they come into close neighborly contact they soon learn that 
one man, with one set of tools and appliances, can supply a 
large community with some article of general use, thereby 
saving the labor involved in the acquisition of the requisite 
skill by many men, and a proportional multiplication of tools, 
while effecting many other economies by the concentration of 
production, thus liberating for the supply of other wants a 
large amount of labor previously wasted. If the opportu- 
nity to freely produce is secured by maintaining the equal 
right to land, the source of all production, together with the 
right to freely exchange the products of labor, this specializa- 
tion of industry will continue to develop to the mutual and 
equal advantage of all concerned: but the specialization of 
industry, in which individuals apply their labor to some 
special line of production, can only effect the supply of the 
various wants of each through an exchange of products; 
but exchange involves transportation, which necessitates high- 
ways; but a highway is in its very nature a monopoly, and 
private ownership of it confers the power to levy tribute on 
all who must use it, without regard to the value of the ser- 
vice rendered, and to discriminate between them at will. 
Hence the ownership and control of all highways, including 
railways, canals, navigable rivers anfiLjTarbors, is a public 
function, to be exercised in the equal iiHeTe^t of all. 



10 THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

Exchange is a part of production, for no process of pro- 
duction can be considered complete until the product reaches 
the consumer, so that the cost of exchange is a part of the 
cost of production. The cost of exchange is usually small, 
compared with the great saving of labor effected by the 
specialization of industry, so that there results therefrom a 
large net gain in the supply of human wants, but any taxa- 
tion or other burden placed upon exchange under any pretext 
whatever increases the cost of production at the expense of 
the consumer. As every such tax is a tax upon industry in 
supplying human need, which must be paid by the consumer, 
it is a tax upon the necessities of men, the folly of which is 
only equalled by its iniquity. 

• 

TRANSMISSION OF INTELLIGENCE. 

The general advance in knowledge, the development of the 
arts and sciences, and the great specialization of industry, 
render the establishment of great systems for the cheap and 
rapid transmission of intelligence a public necessity, but any 
such system that could adequately fulfil the requirements of 
the case would involve the elements of monopoly similar to 
those of highways and be subject to the same abuses if left 
to private control, for which reason their ownership and con- 
trol is also properly a public function. 

WATER. 

In sparsely populated districts the necessary supply of 
water can usually be secured and the disposal of the waste 
matter incident to human habitation be effected by individual 
action without danger to life or health, but in densely popu- 
lated districts, such as cities and large villages, the water 
supply must come from sources that are only available 
through a large outlay of capital and the grant of special 
privileges in the streets and highways, and that are in other 
respects of such a character as to render them monopolies. 
For this reason such water supply should in all cases be 
owned and operated by the public in the equal interest of all. 



AND THEIR LIMITATIONS. 11 



STREET RAILWAYS. LIGHT. HEAT OR POWER. 

Street railways, gas. electric light, heat, or power, and all 
similar systems requiring special privileges in the public 
streets, or elsewhere, should be owned and operated by the 
public. Since the multiplication of such systems would in 
most cases be a sheer waste of capital, no real competition i> 
possible, therefore the owners of such systems have the 
power to levy tribute on all who need the service of such 
systems, out of all proportion to the value of the service ren- 
dered : but the right and duty of the government to control 
any instrument or function extends only so far as the control 
of such instrument or function involves a monopoly. 

The difficulties that beset the administration of public 
affairs in the matter of public improvements, such as the lav- 
ing out and maintenance of streets and highways, water sup- 
ply and sewers, the location of parks, schools and other pub- 
lic institutions and works, from the conflict of selfish local 
interests, due primarily to the way in which such public 
works affect the value of land in their vicinity, would be 
reduced to a minimum undreamed of at present, as a result 
of taking by taxation of the full economic rent of the bare 
land, since that would equalize the benefits of such improve- 
ments by the collection for public use of the increased ground 
rent which such land would yield as the result of such im- 
provements. 

PUBLIC HEALTH. 

The duty of the public to enforce proper sanitary regula- 
tions arises from the fact that the public health is exposed to 
dangers from epidemic and infectious diseases which depend 
for their propagation and dissemination upon causes and con- 
ditions against which the individual cannot protect himself. 
To this class of duties belong the construction and mainte- 
nance of sewers and the disposal of sewage: the inspection 
of the water supply and the food products offered in market : 
the inspection of dwellings, churches, school houses, facto- 
ries, stables, etc.. etc., and the establishment of such hos- 
pitals as the public safety may require. Akin to these duties 



12 THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

is that of maintaining a department for the extinguishment 
of fires. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

One of the first necessities of exchange is a system of 
weights and measures : to prevent fraud in such weights and 
measures it is necessary that the government should establish 
such a system by law. 

CURRENCY. 

The duties of the government in regard to the regulation 
of the currency are similar to those in regard to weights and 
measures, and have their origin in the public necessity for a 
uniform and definite measure of value in effecting exchange, 
which is the chief function of money, but it is essential to 
the perfect fulfilment of this function that the currency itself 
should possess a definite intrinsic value, or be convertible 
with ease and certainty into such a currency at its face value. 
In the matter of the selection of the commodity for use as a 
measure of value the government can do little more than con- 
form to ordinary commercial usage and furnish that com- 
modity in the most convenient form for currency, with its 
own stamp and guarantee of the quality and quantity of 
each specimen, and prohibit the counterfeiting of its stamp; 
for the history of finance has abundantly proved that unless 
the selection of the standard of value does conform to such 
commercial usage, it is sure to be discredited and to fail to 
perform its function perfectly. For various reasons which it 
is not necessary to enter upon here, the commerce of the 
world has for the last quarter of a century shown a constant 
and rapid advance toward making gold the standard measure 
of value, as possessing in a higher degree than any other 
commodity the qualities required in such a measure. 

EDUCATION. 

All history has shown that equal rights can only be 
secured by admitting all classes of citizens to an equal par- 
ticipation in the government, but self-government can rest 



AXI) THEIR LIMITATIONS. 13 

secure only upon the general intelligence and sound morality 
of the whole people, wherefore it becomes the duty of the 
state to furnish the means for, and to insist upon, such a 
measure of educational training, physical, intellectual and 
moral, as is necessary to fit them for the ordinary business of 
life, and to enable them to understand the nature and extent 
of their own rights and the nature and extent of the obliga- 
tions that they owe to others, together with such a knowl- 
edge of the proper functions of government and their limita- 
tions as will enable them to act intelligently upon public 
affairs, since the public welfare is involved in' the wisdom or 
folly with which they fulfil the trusteeship of the rights of 
others involved in the exercise of political power. To de- 
prive any class of the inhabitants of equal participation in 
the administration of the government is to expose them to 
the danger of having the government which is instituted to 
secure their equal rights perverted for their invasion. 

On the other hand, to give them an equal share in the 
government without giving them the education necessary to 
enable them to use such power intelligently is to put the 
rights of others, as well as their own, in peril from their 
ignorance: hence arises the duty of the state to provide a 
sufficient public education to fit all classes to exercise such 
political power as is necessary for the security of their own 
rights, with safety to the rights of others. 

REFERENDUM. 

The history of special legislation in the United States for 
the past century, with the present condition of our statutes, 
affords abundant evidence that any system of representative 
government which delegates full power to legislate without 
requiring that each and every act of legislation shall be sub- 
mitted to and be approved by a direct vote of the people be- 
fore it shall become a law, exposes the equal rights of the 
people to invasion by such special legislation that is scarcely 
less dangerous than that which attends the limitation of the 
suffrage. The power of party machines and the corruption 
of party politics, so much deplored in all representative gov- 
ernments, is due to the opportunities which this system 



14 THE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

affords to advance private interests at the expense of the 
public welfare by such special legislation as could not even 
hope to obtain the direct approval of the people. 

The history of special legislation is simply the record of 
the granting of special privileges to certain individuals upon 
one specious pretext or another, although it is a fundamental 
and self-evident truth that no special privilege can possibly 
be granted or held, except at the expense of the equal rights 
of others, and it cannot be too clearly apprehended that 
every species of invasion of the equality of individual right 
is detrimental to the public welfare. 

SUMPTUARY LEGISLATION. 

Of all legislation against luxury as such, it is enough to 
say that it is a flagrant violation of the equal right of each 
and every individual to use and enjoy his own as he will, 
without regard to its amount, so long as in so doing he does 
not trespass upon the equal rights of others. All such legis- 
lation has in all ages proved as futile in effect as it is unjust 
in principle. 

MORAL LEGISLATION. 

The evil of drunkenness has exercised the minds of legis- 
lators in all ages, and many and various have been the at- 
tempts to mitigate the evil by legislation. In recent times 
the attempts to do this have taken the form of restricting the 
ri^ht to traffic in intoxicating liquors to certain persons by a 
system of license, or that of a total prohibition of such traf- 
fic, and even of their manufacture ; with results under both 
systems that have been far from satisfactory to the friends of 
temperance. Their failure is in large measure due to the fact 
that the underlying causes which beget and develop the appe- 
tite for intoxicants, although largely legislative, are not 
reached by such legislation. In any attempt to regulate the 
traffic in alcoholic liquors and other intoxicants by legislation, 
the responsibility in law should conform as accurately as pos- 
sible to the responsibility in morals. It should never be for- 
gotten that the evil is not in their sale, but in their consump- 



THE FACTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 15 

tion, the manner of which is determined by the consumer, 
and that they have many uses which do not imperil the 
rights of others. In such cases their use or sale is perfectly 
innocent and should in nowise be interfered with by tax or 
otherwise; but when any one sells such intoxicants to any 
person whom they have reason to believe will make such use 
of them as will imperil the welfare of others, they take it 
upon themselves to expose others to such peril, and both the 
seller and the consumer should be held, jointly and severallv, 
responsible for any damage that results to the interests of 
others from such use. This example is given of the princi- 
ples and considerations which should govern all so-called 
moral legislation. 

The duty of the state to punish crime is comprehended in 
imposing upon the criminal such measure of the deserts of 
his crime as may seem best adapted to effect the security of 
the innocent in the enjoyment of their rights, and in the use 
of such means for their reformation as are compatible with 
the safety of others. Government being instituted to secure 
the inalienable right of all men to freedom, any restriction of 
individual freedom beyond what is necessary to prevent tres- 
pass upon the equal right of others is itself an invasion of 
such right. 



THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 

A brief exposition of the nature and basis of commercial 
value, and the principles of credit in their relations to 
the currency. By Edward Jewett. 12mo, paper, 
10 cents. 

CONTENTS : 
General definition of value; Commercial value; Measure of value; 
Currency; Use of the precious metals; Cause of their currency as measures 
of value; Advantages of coinage; Impracticability of maintaining a double 
standard; Fluctuation in relative values of gold and silver; Development 
of the credit system ; Principles involved in the credit system ; Variation 
in amount of gold and silver produced; Ineffectiveness of the attempt to 
prevent the depreciation in value of silver by governmental purchase : 
Loss and danger to the finances attending the attempt; Issue of currency 
a governmental function; Proposal of a system in accordance with prin- 
ciples set forth; Ability to maintain ; Basis of public credit; Effect of pro- 
posed system; Bimetallism biased on redeemability ; Cost and inconven- 
iences of the system ; Final effect of its adoption. 

Address EDWARD JEWETT, 

FiTCHBtritG, Mass. 



THE 



FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 



■AND- 



THEIR LIMITATIONS. 



lX examination of the principles of ethics involved 
in the mutual relations of the government 
. and the individual. 



BY EDWARD JEWETT. 



FITCHBURG, MASS.: 

SENTINEL PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
1893. 



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